Monday, May 21, 2012

They came from all over the world, Norway, Turkey, Croatia France and Albania, to accompany Lady M on a tour of a youth center on the South Side side of Chicago (where Lady M herself grew up, in case you’re from Croatia or somewhere).

MO wanted to show the NATO spouses that - just like in their countries - America has poor, underprivileged children too. The only difference is that here, since the Wons took over, we take care of our underprivileged youths.

Note the unique touch on the hem line that the designer may or may not have intended: the flip thingie might have been Lady M’s own touch, you know how she likes to add her unique signature to things:

And check out the ever so of-the-moment monochromatic tone of the two piece ensemble! This new fashion trend was just reported here last Saturday by our resident fashion maven and spy, Anonymouse! I think we’d all have to agree that our ever fashion forward Lady M totally rocked this new “all one color” trend!

matchy, matchy; matchy, matchy

Although I’m not sure how we can use this new “all one color” theme as part of our campaign, I’m sure Howdy Messina will come up with something to capitalize on the trend.

Anyway, when the ladies were done touring the Gary Comer Center of light and hope, Lady M delivered a few remarks intended to motivate the kids that look just like her.

And I also want to give a special hello, recognize 6 very special guests whom I've brought with me here today, my counterparts and distinguished women in their own right from Albania, Croatia, France, Norway, Turkey and the NATO headquarters.

All of whom were so very glad to be there, I’m sure.

And most of all, I want to recognize all of the extraordinary young people joining us today. You all are amazingly impressive…

Yes, you all are: amazingly impressive.

And of course, we've got to thank the wonderful men and -- young men and women of the Gary Comer Youth Center. You guys were so impressive today…

Did I mention how impressive you guys are? And amazing?

I brought them here because I wanted them to see just how amazing you all are. That's really it. I want them to see you all. I want those cameras to see you all. I brought them here because I am so proud of where I grew up…

Can you cameras see you all?

And there were also well-meaning but sometimes misguided folks who questioned whether someone with my background could get into the kind of colleges that I dreams of attending. And sometimes I'd save those folks the trouble and raise those questions of doubt in my own head; lying awake at night worrying about whether I had what it took to succeed…

And your answer was?

But I decided to just focus, to push the haters out, to kick the doubters out of my head.

I see some of them have returned.

And instead, what I did was I worked really hard. I focused all my energy on working hard. I spent hours every day trying to get my homework done, wrestling with those math problems, writing and rewriting those papers over and over again.

And see how well that’s working out? Ok, we still have a little trouble with math, butt the writing part is good.

Studying, getting up early in the morning to study, because we lived in such a little-bitty apartment that it was hard to concentrate at night when everybody was awake, so often I woke up at 4:30, 5:00 in the morning just to study in quiet. And eventually, I was accepted to Princeton University, and I went onto Harvard Law School. (Applause.)

Because of all your hard work, right? Because nobody would show you the secret trap door.

You see, no one -- or maybe very few people are born smart. You become smart through hard work.

Or because someone shows you where the trap doors are. Or writes you a most excellent autobiography.

And no matter what you want to be, just know this: You will always need a good education. You will always need a good education. There is no shortcut to that. So work hard in school, you all, please.

So you've got to work hard.

Unless, of course, someone shows you the secret trap door.

The bar is high, right? All right.

And then, if you’re very lucky, like Lady M was, you too can grow up to be a Harvard lawyer, pass the bar exam and then “voluntarily” give up that law license that you worked so hard for. Because you don’t really need it once you decide you don’t care about the money and just want to give back to the community instead of enriching yourself. Like all noble people should.

This program was the reason -- one of the reasons why I left practicing law -- so you know I walked away from some money to do this work. But Public Allies will always have a special place in my heart.

Brave, brave Lady M. Working so hard. Sacrificing so much. At the rate she’s going, she’s going to wear herself out before her work is done here.

Whoa! Maybe we need to cut back on the pushups; it looks like we’re working our self to the bone.